Zutara:  True Love's Desire
by Bloodlust1719
Summary: Summary:  The story is set a little after the end of the first season.  Aang, Sokka, and Katara are looking for a place to sit and relax before continuing their search for an Earth bending teacher for Aang. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or locations they are owned by the ATLA writers and publishers (If I owned any of it this would have happened).**

**Summary: The story is set a little after the end of the first season. Aang, Sokka, and Katara are looking for a place to sit and relax before continuing their search for an Earth bending teacher for Aang. They end up heading for Kyoshi Island and Katara has an interesting experience... Enjoy!**

Chapter One

Katara had never been very open when it came to relationships and dating and...her wants. She always felt as if she were too dull to be in a serious relationship. Most of the guys she had dated saw her as more motherly than sexy, and she hated that about herself. She sighed looking up at the clouds and then back down to the ocean passing below them.

She had seen awe inspiring men while traveling and she always wished she had the courage to talk to them...or more than talk. However, she was always too shy or the men were just... uninterested, or that's always the way it seemed. She always left the same way...alone. She was getting tired of being the best friend of the Avatar and uninteresting sister of boomerang boy. She wanted someone to love her the way 'he' loved her.

Speaking of Sokka, he seemed to be having no trouble at all with girls. He met and dated girls everywhere they went and she just didn't get how he could be so freaking irresistible! Sokka wasn't anything to look at...I mean he was her brother but he still looked like an egg-headed weirdo to her. And yet, why were so many girls pining over him?

All this thinking was making her head hurt. Great she was going to get a headache because of her inability to be sexy.

"UGH!" Katara groaned and sank forward into their bags in the corner of Appa's saddle.

"What's wrong?" said Aang and Sokka at the same time, causing Katara to snarl.

"Nothing," Katara spoke irritated as she sat back up next to her best friend and her brother. "When will we be at Kyoshi Island Aang?"

"Uhhhhh...not long now", Aang stated a little unsure. "I think."

Katara stared at Aang with an icy look, "You think?"

"Oh! There it is!" Aang shouted suddenly.

Sokka groaned loudly "FINALLY! We can get more meat!"

Katara just rolled her eyes and whispered, "Yeah, great."

When she got to the shore she never believed anything like this would happen...

There he was on the side of the forest, Shrouded by the shade of the trees. She couldn't believe it. _Was it really him? Could it really be him?_

She hoped that Aang and Sokka hadn't noticed the visitor as they unpacked the bags from Appa's saddle.

"Hey Aang I'm going to go for...a walk. Okay?" Katara intrigued a little uneasy.

"Sure..." stated Aang who seemed not to notice, or care, for that matter.

Katara rushed off in a hurry to see if the young bender was still waiting for her.

She arrived back at the trees out of breath and anxious, "Zuko?"

_'Did i imagine him?'_she thought.

Just then he stepped out from the trees a few yards back and stared at the water bender. Confused and with a somewhat joyous action, he ran toward her.

"Katara, I didn't think you would let me speak to you after..." he said heating up a bit from the nervousness in his throat.

"...After Aang caught you holding me at the Northern Water Tribe. I remember." she butt in uneasy and dying of regret. "I had to say those things Zuko you have to understand. Aang and Sokka...the world...can't know about anything you and I have, or had, and that was...the past. I thought you had gotten rid of me for a reason…so you could be with Mai?"

Zuko looked angry at first as he ran at Katara, pushed her up against the nearest tree, and wrapped her legs around his waist. "Don't ever say what I did ...was to be with Mai...I did it solely to keep the Fire Nation from hunting you like an animal."

Just then he put his large, warm hands around the cape of Katara's neck and kissed her passionately, and restlessly, needing her lips and needing her touch more now than ever before after such a long separation.

"Katara i-"

"Shh...no more talking," Katara cut him off and continued kissing him from his shoulders to his neck and finally rested her lips on his. "We are together again, and that's all that matters now."

Zuko, eager to be close to her, to be holding her cold body again, leaned in and kissed her one more time.

"Katara, I want you. Please, don't be with Aang...he isn't the one for you...didn't you tell me once that no one could ever make you feel this way? The way I make you feel," Zuko feared her answer but looked at her calmly, begging her to agree with his words.

"Zuko," Katara wrapped herself tighter around his waist and laid her hand on the bulge in his pants. "How badly do you want me?" she slowly started stroking his erection and he flung his head back in pleasure moaning with desire...

"Katara-,"Zuko flung them both to the ground and roughly kissed her lips down to her jaw, then moved to her neck, biting and sucking harder until finally he rested his head on the bare skin of her chest while kissing her breasts slowly and gently.

Katara moaned with pleasure as Zuko rose up on his knees and snaked his hands across her sides. In a swift movement he lifted her up and kissed her bare skin as he released her from the confinement of her heavy, fur lined, South Pole robes.

Katara moaned," Touch me Zuko."

Zuko continued to feel every curve of her cold body, feeling his desire build and burn in his throat and hands and surging through every part of his body. He kissed her once more, slower, with more passion building within him.

"Do you want to?" he asked, unsure whether to go on.

"Yes," Katara said as she threw herself over him taking off her remaining bindings and letting her breasts show, and yet...she didn't feel afraid. She wanted this.

Zuko then flipped them around again so that he was hovering over her. Katara slowly untied his robe and threw it away from them, hearing it hit a tree and slide to the ground hitting clovers at the edge of the forest.

Zuko moved his hands across Katara's breasts, warming them with his large hands, and causing Katara to jolt from the sudden heat to her exposed body.

Zuko had never seen anything so...beautiful. _Is it possible for her to look even more beautiful with her clothes off?  
><em>  
>Zuko let his hands glide down past her stomach and then back up to her soft, round, beautiful breasts, and kissed her.<p>

With every move of Zuko's hands she moved with him almost an exact mirror image of his movements. He caressed her thigh and moved his hands lower and kissed just below her bellybutton. She couldn't understand the new sensations she was feeling...but she knew...that she definitely liked them.

"I can't take it anymore Zuko!" Katara yelled while moaning, and becoming even more inpatient began kissing him roughly, needing him, wanting him, and moving her tongue with his as she kissed him. Stroking his erection, she finally released him from the confinement of his clothes.

She continued to stroke him, and watched his head fly back in pleasure, "Kat-"

"Shh," she whispered as she pushed him up against a tree and forced him to stand, "let me take care of you Zuko."

Katara moved her mouth over him with power and grace, and she teased him until she felt his blood would boil if she kept going.

"Katara," he spoke almost inaudible.

He laid her back down on the grass and slowly put himself inside her. Both of them moaned in pleasure and she didn't feel at all afraid. She felt too GOOD to be afraid, and all she wanted was more. Zuko slowly moved in and out of her and she felt his warmth and hers colliding. All of her was so cold and yet this one part of her was so...warm. It amazed her...and him as well.

It was astonishing to them both how amazing this felt. Katara felt as if her head was going to explode. _'Oh spirits don't let him stop! '_

Zuko kept thrusting himself inside her, now with more power, and both of their heads rolled with pleasure as Katara lost all control. She screamed with pleasure of finally being satisfied, and let her fluid encase him.

"Cum for me Zuko," Katara spoke in a whisper. "Please."

Zuko thrust harder and faster. He moaned as heat rose from him. It was so hot she could feel it in _her_skin. He kissed her with one last passionate kiss of their time together... and he let himself fill her with his warmth.

They both lie in the grass, staring at each other nude, as the sun was setting.

"When will I see you again? I don't even want to go back. I love you Zuko. I don't want to hide this anymore," Katara spoke softly as Zuko pulled her into his chest and she hugged him tighter.

"We have forever Katara. I don't ever have to leave. I'll always be with you," Zuko held Katara close watching the sun set on Kyoshi Island. Hopefully, this was not the last sunset with her resting in HIS arms.

"Forever," Katara smiled as she whispered the word. "Stay with me...forever."

"I promise," Zuko whispered confident, and proud. "I will never let you go."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Katara's head was spinning as she jumped out of bed. It had been almost two weeks since Zuko and she had been so closely entwined with one another. Being away from him was starting to make her miss him extremely, almost to the point of being unbearable.

She sighed with good thoughts of her secret lover and smiled.

"Why are you so happy? It seems like ever since we went to Kyoshi Island you've been all giddy and smiling," said Sokka as he rewrapped his boomerang in a blue cloth before setting it in its special boomerang pouch.

"I don't know. I guess I'm just really relaxed," said Katarra calmly. After all she did feel VERY relaxed.

She looked down now and saw the endless waves of water drifting below them, spitting up waves at certain points into the sky whenever some creature was frightened by Appa's sudden presence. However, for Katara, the city of Omashu was going to be interesting.

She never truly kept her mind off Zuko for more than a few minutes. He was just so perfect, and he was all hers. They had promised each other that.

Katara yawned and slowly rolled to lie on the pile of sleeping bags and blankets in Appa's saddle. She had been very mellow since that day in the Kyoshi Island forest...she unhooked her sleeping bag and rolled it out in Appa's saddle. It was almost dusk. The Sunset was going to be setting on the horizon soon. They had been flying for days while making stops only to restock on food. They had left Kyoshi with little in their food supply. This was partly the fault of Katara.

"Aang are we going to make camp?" said Katara already exhausted from the week of traveling.

Aang yawned and looked around the ground in which they were flying over,"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. We'll make camp over up on that hill. There is a cave there i can see it. It will give us plenty of shelter if it rains tonight."

Katara yawned and looked at her unkempt brother. He laid flat on his stomach with his head under their supplies snoring and she couldn't help but laugh.

She was starting to feel as if she should at least tell Sokka about Zuko and their entire relationship. If you'd call it a relationship. They hardly ever saw each other since Zuko was hunting the boy she has sworn to help. The Avatar.

Whenever she thought about telling Sokka it had always ended up this way and she realized she would never be able to tell him. This was too much to risk.

Aang landed Appa just outside the cave on the cliff ledge and appa laid down. She got only her bare essentials and descended into the cave ready to find peace in the cave and still silence. She laid out her sleeping bag and quickly got into it wishing her prince were there to warm her through the night and slowly drifted into sleep... 

The next morning she awoke to Aang and Sokka fighting over... she didn't know exactly. She struggled against her eyes and opened them.

"Don't you ever say that again! You may be the avatar but it won't stop me from hurting you!" threatened Sokka with his boomerang in hand.

"Sokka I just said that's what I think happened. Do you believe that NOTHING happened? I mean why else would he act like that, huh?" screamed Aang, frustrated by the conversation.

"What are you both yelling about?" yawned Katara as she waddled onto the lip of the cave.

Both boys quickly threw their stuff into Appa's saddle and gathered her things for her.

"Nothing really. Don't worry about it. It's nothing you're just tired", said Aang trying to quickly get flying again.

"Yea it's nothing", said Sokka, rushing as well, and still hot tempered.

Both boys were still frighteningly upset after what had happened at the Earth Kingdom Base. A general had tried to force Aang to use the Avatar state to prepare him for the fight against the firelord. However, things went terribly wrong...and Katara had almost been killed by the wacky general. All in all they had left that place pretty quickly after that incident, and now they were on their way to Omashu. Where they hopefully wanted to find Aang an Earth-bending teacher but were sadly disappointed.

Sokka just stared at Katara the entire way to Omashu. He seemed angry and Katara didn't know (nor did she want to know) about the fight Sokka and Aang had this morning. However, she didn't think it was entirely just nothing and should be forgotten either.

"Ok what's wrong with you! You have been acting completely insane ever since we left Kyoshi Island. What is wrong? Spill Sokka!" she screamed at him unable to keep it contained any longer.

"Me? What's wrong with you!" Sokka yelled just as furious as his sister.

Katara looked somewhat confused. "What did I do Sokka? Why are you and Aang fighting? Was it something I did?" said Katara feeling nervous, and also very disappointed in herself, which Sokka could see etched in her face.

"It's nothing ok. Just take my word for it. Aang and I don't know anything about what we were arguing over so just drop it Katara. Ok?" said Sokka hoping the conversation was over as he went up and sat at the front of Appa's saddle.

"Yea ok", said Katara doubtfully. "Sure."

Once they had arrived at Omashu they were shocked. The Fire Nation had taken over the great city but Aang had rid Omashu of the Fire Nation and left without a teacher.

Bumi said he had needed a teacher that 'listened and waited before striking' so that's what he was searching for.

However, things didn't seem to be looking up. They had just passed through a swamp and Aang was starting to have doubts about finding an earth bending teacher. Also, he couldn't keep his mind off Katara. They had actually...kissed in a cave...and he got tingly and nervous when he thought about it.

Katara was a GREAT kisser. It was everything he had ever dreamt of. He wanted to marry Katara. He wanted her forever...for good. Only, something seemed to make her tense up in the cave as if she didn't want to be there with him but with anyone but him.

He just didn't understand if she felt the same way for him as he did about her. These thoughts scared him. What if he would always be alone?  
>The monks had said the Avatar could never have a family, but Aang wanted desperately to have a family, and children...with Katara.<p>

Now he felt like an idiot for what he had said on the cliff to Sokka. He felt the need to apologize but he didn't want Katara to overhear what he had said about her, because if that happened, he could lose her forever.

Katara looked at Aang and suddenly noticed how nervous he was and he seemed kind of...scared.

"Aang what's wrong?" said Katara sincerely wanting to know.

Only one name crossed his lips. A name that made Sokka start spouting out battle strategies, and escape tactics, one name that made Katara cringe.

Aang fought to keep himself from panicking, because three girls had been following them since they left Omashu, but now they had actually had caught up, and Aang had no idea what to say but one word that dreaded all of them, "Azula."

Katara nearly shrieked in surprise, and hatred, for she knew of Azula. Zuko had called her dangerous….and extremely deadly. Zuko had told her that if she had ever met Azula to run the other way, and she trusted his words about his sister now because what she saw from Appa's saddle wasn't just a skilled fire bender. Azula was crazy….and she looked dangerous just her appearance, what little she could see from the saddle, was deadly, and extremely gifted.

"Aang fly higher up into the clouds. She can't follow us if she can't see us," Katara pleaded wishing Zuko were here to tell her what to do to get away from his maniac of a sister.

She silently whispered, "Where are you?"

Little did she know that not far from where they were Zuko and Iroh were setting camp in a forest on their way to Ba Sing Se.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Zuko's POV**

Endless fire. Burning everything in his memory, but he couldn't fight it. He was helpless here. What was he to do? Her screams lingered in his ears and left them ringing. His father was the cause of all this pain, and right as he thought the pain was over he burned her alive.

Zuko was screaming in the blackness of the forest, in the tent where Iroh and he had been staying the last few days. Iroh awoke in a frenzy trying to figure out why Zuko was acting in such a way. He was covered in sweat and seemed as if he were trapped in the dream.

"Zuko, Zuko it's alright nothing is burning. Wake up please my nephew it's alright!" Iroh was yelling at Zuko now and was getting dangerously worried. "Zuko please wake up!"

Zuko was walking on a hard surface now. The screaming subsided and he was frantic. All he wanted to do was find her. Find Katara.

He wandered off entering a door, and as soon as he entered it . . . He was falling . . . from thousands of feet in the air. . .

He woke up screaming.

"No!" he screamed as fire shot from his hands and mouth in all directions.

Iroh stood back and waited for Zuko to realize he was awake. Tears were streaming down his face and he felt like he couldn't breathe. All of a sudden he remembered what had made him so panicked. He had seen Azula in his dream...and a single shot of lightning. He needed to find Katara he needed to protect her, and himself, from the perils of his nightmares.

He wrapped his arms around his knees and sat shaking for a long while. Iroh made tea and kept insisting that he drink it, but Zuko didn't want to feel calm or go back to sleep. In fact he was terrified of the darkness he saw around him. He needed to tell someone about Katara. He needed help.

Tears now started flowing his face, not in fear, but in a need for understanding and guidance, "Uncle, Can I confide a secret in you? With your promise that you will do everything you can to help me. Or help me find what I need to do."

"Of course," said Iroh suddenly afraid. He didn't know what trouble Zuko had gotten into now but he would protect his nephew to the death, and take whatever secrets that were confided in him to the grave.

Zuko told his uncle everything about his relationship with Katara: how it had started, and thrived. How it kept him alive to know that she cared for him. He told him everything except their afternoon at Kyoshi Island.

Iroh had tears in his own eyes, "Zuko if you love this girl then you must go to her. Azula will stop at nothing to destroy the Avatar...and you. I will keep you and her protected forever. No one will ever harm you. Now go, Zuko! Go find her now!"

Zuko took only one thing before he ran off into the darkened forest on his way to her, his immortal spirit, his life, a blue southern water tribe canteen that Katara had given him on their last meeting on Kyoshi Island.

**Katara's POV**

She was running on adrenaline. She hadn't slept in at least 3 days and Azula wasn't giving up.

"We need to think of a way to lose them!" Katara yelled to Aang.

Aang forced Appa up into the clouds. Hints of frustration, anger, and...pain? What was bugging him? All of a sudden Aang flew of Aapa, onto his glider, and sped off.

"Where is he going!" Katara screamed at Sokka. "We are being chased by the blue fire bitch queen and he just leaves!"

"He has a lot on his mind. Okay," said Sokka seeming a little irritable, too.

"What is wrong with the two of you? You both have been acting strange!" Katara was angered by the two of them and had been for days. Both Aang and Sokka were hiding something and she wanted to know what.

"Sokka tell me now or...I swear I'll jump into the water and have Azula catch me."

Sokka threw his canteen into the saddle where Katara was laying and quickly huffed. "It's Nothing just go to sleep ok–"

"No it's not! What are you HIDING?" Katara screamed in frustration.

Sokka turned his head and looked Katara in the eye, seeing anger, frustration, and fear in them. Sokka slowly sighed, "He thinks you have a secret boyfriend your keeping hidden from us...and he's really upset by it..."

Katara suddenly slumped against the back of the saddle in fear. She had been so careful, so secretive, and yet he found out about Zuko. There was no logic in her reasoning but she just knew Aang was hiding the identity of her lover from Sokka, and she didn't know why. However, she felt a sudden urge to fly after Aang and keep him from finding Zuko, because she knew nothing good would come out of that meeting. Katara needed to find out what he knew…..if he found Zuko, she didn't even want to think about it. Aang was too angry to see reason.

"It's true isn't it?" How he said it made Katara grow cold. All she could do was cry and hope that Aang never would find Zuko. She looked up at Sokka just once and he knew it was true. He shook his head and continued to fly toward Ba Sing Se and with the look of terror on her face, she whispered to the sky "We have to find Zuko. . ."

The look of fury in Sokka's eyes when she said his name was everything she had expected.

"ZUKO! Your secret love affair is with ZUKO!" Sokka shook his head and cursed at the sky. "Let aang find him. I don't care what happens to that asshole you're not seeing him ever again. EVER!"

"EXCUSE ME! Who do you think you ARE? You're not my father Sokka you can't just tell me what to do!" Katara screamed between sobs. She was infuriated by sokka, and in fear of losing Zuko. "If you won't help me find him . . . then I'll go myself." Before sokka could stop her, Katara Jumped out of Appa's saddle and into the water.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Katara was falling faster and reaching closer to the bright ocean below when suddenly there was a flash of blue.

**Zuko's POV**

"No, Katara!" Zuko screamed her name as she plummeted into the water lightning still sparking off her as she hit. Azula's maniacal laugh was heard for miles. Underneath the soft blue of the water he could see her sinking. He lost it . . . His sanity. His humanity. All he could think about was that he wanted her dead. Blood meant nothing anymore. Her death would be his redemption.

Zuko charged toward Azula fury and pure outrage lining his face as he burned her face with the strikes he threw. The flames scorched her skin and elegantly danced across it. By the time he had allowed his anger to subside, Azula was unrecognizable. Zuko jumped into the water after Katara, frantically diving deeper and deeper into the blue ocean in which his meaning had sunk mere moments before. When he finally found her he brought her body to the surface desperate to save the one who had saved his humanity before.

He couldn't believe he had sunk so low after all he had done. How he had changed, grew. He was still the banished prince with no soul inside him. He knew he had been the cause of Kataras state of being at this moment. He fell and she plummeted down with him.

"Katara! Katara! Oh, please wake up, please!" screamed Zuko as he pulled both of them toward the narrow beach. She had no breath; she was silent and unmoving, just like the shallow sands of the deserts. He began to panic and pounded his fist against her chest.

Her eyes flew open and Katara was suddenly gasping for air. As she coughed up all the water in her lungs Zuko, not giving her any time to recover, picked her up into his arms and squeezed her tightly still lying on the soft but rugged beach sand. She then looked up into the eyes of the man that saved her, and shock lined her face.

She only uttered one word before the unconsciousness took her, "Zuko?"

**Katara's POV  
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She awakened to the smell of . . . Jerky? Sokka wasn't here was he? Did she _dream_ about the incident on the beach with Zuko? So many questions raced through her head and she still hadn't even opened her eyes. In a way she was scared of what she would see if she did. She had no recollection of where she was. Should she call out? That seemed stupid. If she had really been attacked and kidnaped or . . . whatever had happened it was probably best to just lay still and play dead.

Then she heard two men talking.

"How long has she been sleeping Prince Zuko?" asked uncle Iroh, concern clearly stated in his tone from what Katara could hear.

"About four hours. . . Do you think she is alright uncle? What if I didn't save her in time? What if Azula . . ." Zuko stopped unable to ask the last question. The fire burned in his throat and his eyes started to turn red in rage.

"You mustn't think like that Zuko. We can only hope for the best. Katara is a very strong girl. We have seen that in every way she has fought in the past. She can make it through a little lighting."

Katara could feel the cheery smile Iroh was wearing staring at her. Now that she knew who the two men were and it was clear to her that they were not a threat . . . then why couldn't she open her eyes? She wasn't afraid of Iroh was she? She could feel his friendliness through his voice. Then she realized why she didn't want to open her eyes.

There was a strange hostility in the room. She could feel the heat of the outrage coursing her skin. Then she felt someone grab her hand and without control she gasped.

Iroh laughed, "It's alright Katara. You're safe here I promise."

Katara opened her eyes: Iroh and Zuko were cautiously surrounding her and it kind of caught her off guard.

"What's wrong?" she choked out realizing too late how dry and crackly her voice was. And all she could think was thatwas_ really unattractive. _She rose up into a sitting position and looked around at the little tent all three of them were in. then she remembered the fact that she had been sleeping for four hours and her hands shot up to her hair, which was a little damp with sand in it. She could feel the knots in her hair.

"Great," she sighed and looked around again and suddenly her stomach growled. When was the last time she ate? She couldn't remember. However, Zuko was way ahead of her. He handed her some rice and soup that was sitting in a bowl by the bed.

"Eat Katara, I don't want you to pass out again," then he flashed her that glorious, blinding, smile. She felt as if she would pass out from the mere sight of it. However all she did was manage to slip and fall on her face, embarrassing herself even further.

Zuko helped her back up and sat behind her so that she could sit up with him supporting her weight. She felt so comfortable there in that warmth enveloped in his scent, his heat, his entire body surrounding her. Then suddenly forgetting that Iroh was still in the room, she turned and kissed him, his lips melting into hers, and she couldn't help but moan with the familiarity of his touch. She was in heaven, she was sure of it.

Tears flooded down her cheeks as Zuko picked her up and sat her on his lap, not letting their lips part for an instant. He was just as engulfed in their sudden surge of passion as she was, he had missed her, too, with all the fibers of his existence and he was not going to let her slip away from him ever again.

And in a unified course of panting when they finally let their lips part the only thing they dared utter in hope of not wasting any more time, with just seconds before their lips met once more they uttered in soft silence:

"I love you"

They both smiled and entangled themselves once more into the warmth of each other's embrace not leaving it for any reason but to breathe suddenly and quickly for this was their time. No more of it would be borrowed or wasted apart. The world would know about them, and they would fight until the world ended.


End file.
